Bill separator using frictional force

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a bill separator using frictional force, including a gate roller and a feeding roller which rotate in close contact with front and rear surfaces of a bill, respectively, to separate and discharge bills one by one, wherein the gate roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the bill and constructed not to rotate in a bill-discharging direction, the feeding roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the gate roller and constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and to come into close contact with or be spaced apart from the gate roller, and an elastic means is further provided for causing the feeding roller to be in close contact with the gate roller with a certain magnitude of elastic force. With the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention, bills can be correctly discharged one by one so that the number of bills discharged can be coincident with the number of bills requested, and the bill separator can be easily installed and repaired without a skilled person and a special jig since possible abnormal changes in a gap between the gate roller and the feeding roller can be overcome simply by replacing the elastic means.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a bill separator for separating and discharging bills one by one, and more specifically, to a bill separator, wherein rotational shafts of feeding and gate rollers, which are in close contact with front and rear surfaces of an introduced bill, are coupled to each other by means of. a spring so that frictional force between the feeding and gate rollers and the front and rear surfaces of the bill can be kept constant.

2. Description of the Related Art

A bill separator employed in an automated-teller machine should be operated in a very precise manner without an error, considering that it handles cash money. That is, when bills are discharged, the number of bills actually discharged should be coincident with the number of bills requested, by discharging them one by one without a phenomenon in which two or more bills are discharged at a time or any bills are not discharged.

In order to implement such a function, various types of bill separators have been proposed. Among them, an overlap-type bill separator has been widely used. In this overlap-type separator, a feeding roller and a gate roller are combined to overlap on the order of a few hundreds of micrometers, so that only one bill can be discharged at a time.

However, in order to obtain such effects, the amount of overlap should be very precisely adjusted. Thus, for such precise adjustment of the amount of overlap, an assembling expert and a specially designed jig are required along with the consumption of a great deal of time. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is very difficult to install and repair the conventional bill separator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is conceived to solve the aforementioned problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a bill separator in which bills can be correctly discharged one by one so that the number of bills discharged can be coincident with the number of bills requested, and which can be easily installed and repaired without a skilled person and a special jig.

According to the present invention for achieving the object, there is provided a bill separator using frictional force, including a gate roller and a feeding roller which rotate in close contact with front and rear surfaces of a bill, respectively, to separate and discharge bills one by one, wherein the gate roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the bill and constructed not to rotate in a bill-discharging direction, the feeding roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the gate roller and constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and to come into close contact with or be spaced apart from the gate roller, and an elastic means is further provided for causing the feeding roller to be in close contact with the gate roller with a certain magnitude of elastic force.

The magnitude of the elastic force of the elastic means for causing the feeding roller to be in close contact with the gate roller may be determined to be in a range in which when two or more bills B are introduced into a nip portion between the gate roller and the feeding roller, frictional force is generated between the gate roller and the bills such that only a bill, which is in direct contact with the feeding roller, is discharged by the rotation of the feeding roller and a bill, which is not in direct contact with the feeding roller, is brought into contact with the gate roller and thus prevented from being discharged.

At this time, the elastic means may comprise a coil spring of which one end is fixedly connected to a main body of the bill separator and the other end is connected to a rotational shaft of the feeding roller.

Further, the feeding roller may be constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and in a direction opposite thereto, and the gate roller may be provided with a one-way clutch so that the gate roller can rotate only in the direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a bill separator using frictional force according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a left side view of the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a right side view of the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a state where a single bill is introduced into a nip portion between a gate roller and a feeding roller employed in the bill separator of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a state where two bills are introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller and the feeding roller employed in the bill separator of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, a bill separator using frictional force according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 3 are a front view, a left side view and a right side view of a bill separator using frictional force according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the bill separator using frictional force according to the present invention comprises a gate roller 100, a feeding roller 200, a pick-up roller 300, and a main body 400. The gate roller 100 is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of a bill and has a horizontal gate roller rotational shaft 110 coupled thereto along a central axis thereof. The gate roller 100 is constructed such that it cannot rotate in a bill-discharging direction but can rotate in a direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction. The feeding roller 200 is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the gate roller 100 and has a horizontal feeding roller rotational shaft 210 coupled thereto along a central axis thereof. The feeding roller 200 is constructed such that it can rotate in the bill-discharging. direction and simultaneously come into close contact with or be spaced apart from the gate roller 100. The pick-up roller 300 rotates about a horizontal pick-up roller rotational shaft 310, thereby transferring a bill into a nip portion between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200. Opposite ends of the respective rotational shafts are secured to the main body 400.

As shown in FIG. 2, a gate gear 120 coupled to the gate roller rotational shaft 110, a feeding gear 220 coupled to the feeding roller rotational shaft 210, a pick-up gear 320 coupled to the pick-up roller rotational shaft 310, and a relay gear 500 for transmitting power between the feeding gear 220 and the pick-up gear 320 are installed on a left side surface of the main body 400. Thus, as the pick-up gear 320 rotates, the feeding gear 220 is rotated by the rotation of the relay gear 500.

Here, the gate gear 120 is provided with a one-way clutch so that the gate gear 120 cannot rotate in the bill-discharging direction, i.e., it can rotate only in a direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction.

As shown in FIG. 3, a right surface of the main body 400 is formed with an elongated hole with a horizontal length, which is formed at a region where one end of the feeding roller rotational shaft 210 will be coupled. An elastic means 112 is connected to the main body 400 and the feeding roller rotational shaft 210 so as to cause the feeding roller 200 to be in close contact with the gate roller 100 with a certain magnitude of elastic force. Therefore, unless an external force larger than the elastic force of the elastic means 112 is exerted on the feeding roller 200, the feeding roller 200 remains in close contact with the gate roller 100.

The magnitude of the elastic force of the elastic means 112 for causing the feeding roller 200 to be in close contact with the gate roller 100 is determined to be in a range in which when two or more bills are introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200, frictional force is generated between the gate roller 100 and the bills such that only a bill, which is in direct contact with the feeding roller 200, is discharged by the rotation of the feeding roller and a bill, which is not in direct contact with the feeding roller 200, is brought into contact with the gate roller 100 and thus prevented from being discharged. It will be apparent that the force of the elastic means 112 for establishing such close contact should be changed depending on the type of bill or the material of each roller.

With such a structure in which the force for establishing the close contact between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200 can be adjusted using the single elastic means 112, if the contact force therebetween is changed abnormally to such an extent that the bill-separating function cannot be normally performed, a user can simply replace the elastic means 112, thereby easily solving this problem. Thus, the bill separator using frictional force according to the present invention has an advantage in that the installation, maintenance and repair thereof are performed in a very convenient manner as compared with a conventional bill separator in which the overlap between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200 should be precisely controlled and maintained.

Here, the elastic means 112 comprises a coil spring of which one end is fixedly connected to the main body 400 and the other end is connected to the end of the feeding roller rotational shaft 210. However, the type of the elastic means 112 is not limited thereto but may be variously modified so far as it can bring the feeding roller 200 into close contact with the gate roller 100 with a certain magnitude of elastic force.

FIG. 4 illustrates a state where a single bill is introduced into a nip portion between the gate roller and the feeding roller employed in the bill separator of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the feeding roller 200 rotates in the bill-discharging direction in a state where a single bill B is introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200, the bill B is discharged upwardly by means of the rotation of the feeding roller 200 since the frictional force between the feeding roller 200 and the bill B is higher than that between the gate roller 100 and the bill B.

At this time, the gate roller 100 remains stationary since it is constructed not to rotate in the bill-discharging direction.

FIG. 5 illustrates a state where two bills are introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller and the feeding roller employed in the bill separator of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the feeding roller 200 rotates in the bill-discharging direction in a state where two bills B are introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200, a bill B that is in contact with the feeding roller 200 is discharged upwardly by means of the rotation of the feeding roller 200 since the frictional force between the feeding roller 200 and the bill B is larger than that between the bills B, whereas a bill B that is in contact with the gate roller 100 is not discharged upwardly but remains in contact with the gate roller 100 since the frictional force between the gate roller 100 and the bill B is larger than that between the bills B.

With the use of the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention, only a single bill B is discharged to the outside even through two bills B are introduced into the nip portion between the gate roller 100 and the feeding roller 200, thereby preventing a phenomenon in which any bills B are not discharged or two or more bills are discharged at a time. Therefore, the reliability of the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention can be improved since the number of bills actually discharged is always coincident with the number of bills requested.

As described above, the bill separator using frictional force according to the invention has advantages in that bills can be correctly discharged one by one so that the number of bills discharged can be coincident with the number of bills requested, and that the bill separator can be easily installed and repaired without a skilled person and a special jig since possible abnormal changes in a gap between the gate roller and the feeding roller can be overcome simply by replacing the elastic means.

Although the present invention has been described in detail in connection with the preferred embodiment, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiment but should be construed based on the appended claims. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. 

1. A bill separator using frictional force, including a gate roller and a feeding roller, the gate and feeding rollers rotating in close contact with front and rear surfaces of a bill, respectively, to separate and discharge bills one by one, wherein the gate roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the bill and constructed not to rotate in a bill-discharging direction; the feeding roller is formed of a material with a friction coefficient higher than that of the gate roller and constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and to come into close contact with or be spaced apart from the gate roller; and an elastic means is further provided for causing the feeding roller to be in close contact with the gate roller with a certain magnitude of elastic force:
 2. The bill separator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the magnitude of the elastic force of the elastic means for causing the feeding roller to be in close contact with the gate roller is determined to be in a range in which when two or more bills B are introduced into a nip portion between the gate roller and the feeding roller, frictional force is generated between the gate roller and the bills B such that only a bill B, which is in direct contact with the feeding roller, is discharged by the rotation of the feeding roller and a bill, which is not in direct contact with the feeding roller, is brought into contact with the gate roller and thus prevented from being discharged.
 3. The bill separator as claimed in claim 2, wherein the elastic means comprises a coil spring of which one end is fixedly connected to a main body of the bill separator and the other end is connected to a rotational shaft of the feeding roller.
 4. The bill separator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the feeding roller is constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and in a direction opposite thereto, and the gate roller is provided with a one-way clutch so that the gate roller can rotate only in the direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction.
 5. The bill separator as claimed in claim 2, wherein the feeding roller is constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and in a direction opposite thereto, and the gate roller is provided with a one-way clutch so that the gate roller can rotate only in the direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction.
 6. The bill separator as claimed in claim 3, wherein the feeding roller is constructed to rotate in the bill-discharging direction and in a direction opposite thereto, and the gate roller is provided with a one-way clutch so that the gate roller can rotate only in the direction opposite to the bill-discharging direction. 